Jon Rahm’s Shinnecock collapse turned a U.S. Open contender into a cut-line casualty as Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau also crashed out early on Friday.
Jon Rahm’s U.S. Open didn’t just unravel at Shinnecock Hills, it detonated.
One day after looking like a real threat near the top of the leaderboard, Rahm staggered through a second-round 78 and missed the U.S. Open cut for the first time since this same brutal venue hosted the championship in 2018.
The 2021 U.S. Open champion began Friday tied for second at 2-under, but by the end of the round he was packing for home at the number nobody wants to see.
Rahm turned in 2-over 38, which was survivable.
Then Shinnecock got its claws in him. Four straight bogeys starting at No. 12 sent him into a slide, and a double bogey on the 16th pushed him beyond the cutline.
When the dust finally settled, the weekend number held at 4-over, leaving Rahm on the wrong side of a stunning exit.
That alone would’ve been enough drama. It wasn’t close to the whole story.
Brooks Koepka, a two-time U.S. Open winner and the defending Shinnecock champion from 2018, also crashed out after a back-nine 41.
For Koepka, it marked his first missed U.S. Open cut since his tournament debut in 2012.
Bryson DeChambeau missed by a single shot after a 5-over 75, continuing an ugly stretch that now includes three straight missed cuts for the first time in his career.
The casualty list kept growing from there. Si Woo Kim finished at 6-over, while Rickie Fowler, Shane Lowry, Patrick Cantlay, Viktor Hovland and Patrick Reed were among the other big names done before the weekend.
Shinnecock didn’t just trim the field. It took a blowtorch to the star power.
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